Being a blissfully single woman whose got nothing better to do than blog and write books, I spend a great deal of time fussing over my fur baby: Pilot, my dog.
This year for "May The 4th Be With You" day, I wanted to make a Star Wars dog costume so my dog could geek out with me (who knows; I might use the costume for Halloween later as well). I planned to make several really cool costumes all by myself, then have a photo shoot with my sister's Golden Retrievers and Pilot, and use the pictures to make a Geeky post for May the 4th #StarWarsDay. Well, needless to say, that did not work out as planned. The only costume that came together in time was Pilot's X-Wing pilot flight suit costume. The simplest two costumes were going to be Chewbacca and Han Solo: - Chewbacca costume: a wide brown leather belt, strips of gray tape, and a little brown bag. Put the strips of gray tape on the belt at intervals, attach the little brown bag, and VIOLA! your furbaby costume is done. - Han Solo: black vest, white shirt (unless your dog has white fur, then the shirt is not needed), a toy gun belt, and a toy gun. TA-DA! Slip it all on your dog and your pooch is now the dashing Han Solo! It couldn't get any easier, right? Well, in our house, you learn that what should be easy is extremely complicated, and what should be difficult takes a few seconds to do, and what should be impossible takes only a few minutes... Yeah, any plans made in our house are bound to turn into one, gigantic, Firefly/Serenity mess (geeky fandom pun, in case you missed it). Anyway, all that to say that I only got one costume done:
The X-Wing pilot flight suit was really easy to make, as long as I had a little imagination.
For the computer chest piece: Small square Card Board piece (whatever size suits your dog) Gray Tape 3 pieces of light colored felt 2 pieces of dark colored felt 2 white, large Lego bricks 1 gray, large Lego brick 1 back of a cell phone case (or anything that's black and square/rectangle shaped) 1 Quarter 1 Dime 1 stick of hot glue (using hot glue means that you can use most of the items again later) 12" of Elastic (depending on dog size) I took the piece of cardboard and covered it in gray tape. Then I hot glued the Lego bricks side-by-side, followed by gluing the back of an old cell phone next to them. I took the quarter and glued it just underneath the camera opening of the cellphone back, then I took the dime and placed it down and a little to the left of the quarter and glued it there as well. After that, I glued the felt squares in the remaining spaces, placing the two darkest ones above the Lego bricks. After that, I literally stabbed holes in the top corners and tied the elastic through them so that the entire thing could hang from my dog's neck. For the white vest: This took more effort than I thought it would, because I couldn't find a piece of white fabric in our house to save my life. Finally, I found an old toddler t-shirt. So, I just cut the sleeves off, cut the bottom off, cut the neck out (cutting makes me happy, can't ya tell?) and made a bib-like apparition. After that, I sewed the bottom corners together: right corner to right corner and left corner to left corner (sewing does NOT make me happy, so I don't put much effort into it). TA-DA! There I have the vest thingamajig... it's a little bit big for Pilot, but nobody will notice... The Orange Jumpsuit/Shirt: Now, this is the most striking part of this suit, so I was a lot more picky about it; I pulled an old orange t-shirt out of my dresser and turned it into a shirt for my dog. For this part, I will let you watch a video. This particular video really, really, REALLY simplified making a dog shirt, and I did not watch it before I made Pilot's dog shirt. My dog shirt was a lot more complicated... *cough, cough*... BUT, I like how mine turned out better than the one in the video. However, I did not have the time to make a video explaining how to make a dog shirt (I'll save that for another time, I guess). So, for a simplified way of making your dog a shirt out of your old clothes, here is a really easy video to watch. Once you have the orange shirt/jumpsuit for your dog, and the other two accessories all made, then your pet's X-Wing Pilot Flight Suit is all ready to go! Enjoy! ![]()
The Educational Link Up party is below. If you'd like to join, here are the "Rules of the Galactic Highway":
· Your post must be educational. · Your post must fall into one of the following categories - Sci-Fi, Geekdom, or Science. · Check out what your hosts are up to. - We have been having some great Science, Geeky fun this week and we would love you to check it out. The Hosts will be the first few spots on the link up. · Follow the person above you or find your fandom and comment on at least one post. - Let's make the universe a little smaller by sharing the love! Have fun! - If I know the Sci/Fi, Geek, Science world I know you will have tons of fun with this! Keep the fandom conflict out of it though. Trekkies and Wookies can coexist! Co-Hosts Meagan from More Than A Coupon Queen Jess from Benoit Academy Andrea from Waldorf Salad & Cottage Fries Kassondra from Motherhood Community Nessa from 2 Dorks In Love
As far as I'm concerned, my parents raised me right, and one of the things that they did right was raise my sister and I on STAR WARS. She and I took it from there and made sure the younger siblings got plenty of Star Wars education....
Although some people think it's corny and stupid, Star Wars made a huge impact on the movie making world with its incredible effects (which were, at the time, very incredible), its great story line (at the time, it was really great), and its fantastic characters which left a mark on the hearts and minds of fans everywhere. - Did You Know: All six of the live-action movies debuted in the month of May? As a result, Star Wars fans created a totally awesome "Star Wars Day" which takes place on May 4th when everyone can say "May the Force be with you". One of the first records of "May the 4th" being used is in 1979, which was described by author Alan Arnold while he was chronicling the making of The Empire Strikes Back for Lucasfilm: Friday, May 4
Once the internet became a big thing, "May the 4th be with you" evolved from a saying, into a hashtag, and finally into a full blown holiday! And the best thing about it is this: it is totally fan made.
To celebrate this very cool, fan made holiday, Pilot (my dog) has donned a pretty impressive outfit. Since his name is "Pilot" it only seemed right for him to be in some sort of flying/pilot suit. Therefore, I made him his very own X-Wing fighter pilot suit! I know it's hard to tell (note the sarcasm in my cyber voice), but I made the entire thing by myself. That's right! It was all "DIY"... Tomorrow I will be posting a "How I Did It" blog post for a very special Geeky Group and Link Up that I've come to enjoy hanging out with. So, stay tuned! BONUS: Did you know that the movie "IRON LADY" is really, really good? It's all about Margaret Thatcher, that wonderful woman mentioned in the above quote. She was the first female prime minister in Britain, and she was a fantastic role model for girls and women everywhere. After you are done watching the ENTIRE Star Wars trilogy today, you should find the "Iron Lady" and watch it too! ![]() It has almost been a year since Pilot was given to me, September 10th, 2013. He and I have been through quite a bit since then. He loved going to work with me while I worked at a local greenhouse, but when the greenhouse quit for the winter, he quickly learned to cope with staying at home all the time. However, he takes any chance available to jump in the vehicle with me and go for a road trip. He loves sticking his head out the window or the back of the pickup while we are driving to let the wind blow in his face. Pilot is a firecracker full of energy! If I were a jogging/running person, or an agility guru, we would be a match made in heaven! Unfortunately for him, I only walk and hike. He loves to explore, so the time we spend hiking is well spent. When I stopped working at the greenhouse in October, I had to find another energy and mental outlet for Pilot. So we got into trick training and obedience. This proved to be a real challenge for the both of us. Pilot is whip smart, but he has the greatest of difficulty focusing on any one thing for too long. So, I started using meal time as a time to teach him to calm down, wait, and focus. He quickly picked up on the "all good things come to those who wait" proverb. ![]() He likes playing Frisbee (for about 15 minutes, then his attention span goes *bye-bye*), so I also started using that, along with tasty treats, to reinforce his manners. I would refuse to throw the Frisbee until he sat, laid down or, later, rolled over. Then I would treat him and/or throw the Frisbee. Now he's a pro at "Stay", "Sit", "Down", "Roll Over", and we are currently working on nailing down "Spin". I did have a teeny-tiny agility course set up for him to run during spring. He LOVED that course until we took it down when the weeds started getting bigger than me. He likes jumping up on things, climbing things, running through things, and learning how to navigate stuff. Honestly, I think he would be a great agility dog star. I posted a short video on YouTube of him doing some of his agility, if you would like to see it. As far as personality, Pilot gets along with everybody. He has been very well behaved and gentle around the elderly and disabled, and he just adores children. He also gets along well with other dogs, even those that are known to be a bit mean and grumpy. The first thing he wants to do with another dog is play, but he has learned to sit down, wait, and smile at the other dog until it warms up to him. On the other hand, rabbits and small fuzzy animals are his to chase, bite, and kill. He will tolerate the pet rabbits being outside of their cages, as long as I have my eye on him, but I dare not turn my back to him or the pet bunny will be NO MORE! Birds tend to be an interesting subject with Pilot. He ignores the chickens, and he watches the adult peacocks from a distance, but littler birds are just a ball with wings for him. He has killed more sparrows than I care to count, and he killed one of our baby peacocks when it was trying to fly. He just snatched it right out of the air (yeah, that was not one of our better days). He also wants to chase cattle and horses. Thankfully, I have been able to drill a very strong recall into him, which has saved us both from a few accidents more than once, but I still keep him on a strong lead whenever I know we are going to be around cattle or horses. Goats and sheep don't seem to bug him too much, but this could be because our little lamb and our goat have whipped his rear and taught him some manners. So, aside from digging holes in the yard for his bones, and tearing up whatever toys get accidentally left outside, he's a pretty good boy. And he is super cute when he howls with the coyotes at night. He does! He sits in the middle of the yard, raises his head, and howls with the best of them! |
Kathryn FoglemanAuthor of the fantasy series, Tales of the Wovlen, Kathryn spends a great deal of time in the world of her imagination, having tea with fire breathing dragons, writing books on flying space ships, and practicing her mad scientist laugh with gusto. However, on occasion,she returns to this world just to play with her dog and blog about her fun. My BookGrab a Button!![]() Archives
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